Factories Act 1937

70 General conditions as to hours of employment of women and young persons.

Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, the hours worked, the period of employment, and the intervals for meals and rest, for every woman or young person employed in a factory shall conform to the following conditions, namely :—

(a) the total hours worked, exclusive of intervals allowed for meals and rest, shall neither exceed nine in any day nor exceed forty-eight in any week;

(b) the period of employment shall not exceed eleven hours in any day and shall neither begin earlier than seven o'clock in the morning nor end later than six o'clock in the evening in the case of young persons who have not attained the age of sixteen, or in other cases eight o'clock in the evening, or, on Saturday, one o'clock in the afternoon;

(c) a woman or young person shall not be employed continuously for a spell of more than four and a half hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal or rest, so, however, that where an interval of not less than ten minutes is allowed in the course of a spell, the spell may be increased to five hours ;

(d) the period of employment and intervals allowed for meals and rest in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section shall be the same for all women and young persons employed in the factory, except that the period of employment may end at an earlier hour for young persons who have not attained the age of sixteen;

(e) no woman or young person shall be employed during any such interval allowed for meals or rest.